Using the paper trail their ancestors left behind, and weve compiled everything weve learned into a book of life. Oh, boy, get the tissues. Dershowitz i hope she had a good lawyer. I wish i was around then. Oh, my god. Can i skip to the last page and see how i die . Gates while each of my guest has their own individual relationship to their faith and their culture, their families stories of perseverance in the face of poverty and religious persecution unite them all. Was provided by. Ancestry dna. A Family History dna test that can help you travel up to a thousand years into the past and discover not just who but where you came from. All to help answer what it is that makes you. You. Just like the roots are the Strongest Foundation of a tree, your familys roots carry the strength that makes you the individual you are today. Seasons may change, but those seasons will never change you. And as you recognize the significance of your history and dig deeper to discover more, we recognize your drive as you go further in finding your roots. On that grind, huh . Have a good night. Hey, you forgot something. Thats you. Big mac, extra sauce, right . Right. Being deeply rooted means being simply connected. And by the ford foundation, just films. The corporation for public broadcasting. And by viewers like you. Ing] king i feel the earth move under my feet playing i feel the sky tumbling down i feel my heart start to trembling whenever youre around gates fourtime grammy awardwinning singer and songwriter carole king achieved pop superstardom with her 1971 album tapestry. With over 25 million copies sold, its one of the bestselling recordings of all time. Shes been inducted into both the rock and roll hall of fame and the songwriters hall of fame, and more than 100 of her songs have made the billboard charts. Shes written some of my favorite r b hits like Aretha Franklins natural woman, the shirelles will you love me tomorrow, and the drifters up on the roof. Up on the roof how did a nice jewish girl from brooklyn end up writing some of the greatest r b records in history . Was there an epiphany when you heard something black and you went, wow, it just blew my mind . The minute the first time. You tell me, what better lyric has ever been written than awopbopaloomop awopbamboom gates born Carol Joan Klein on february 9, 1942, to sidney klein and Eugenia Cammer this socalled nice jewish girl from brooklyn had musical stardom on her mind when, as a teenager, she changed her name, adding the e carol and adopting the last name king. King in those days, jewish performers typically changed their names to anglosaxon, and i think, probably, a little bit, there was something about me that i didnt like then, just me, and so i thought, ok. Im going to give myself a little bit of a new identity. Most of us dont like ourselves very much at the age of 15. Thats a good point. I wish id known that then. Gates caroles career in music spans more than 50 years, but it turns out that the roots of her success were planted well over a century ago when her grandmother fled antisemitism and persecution in russia, carrying her dreams and a love of music with her to america. King my mother came from a household in which culture was very much valued, particularly music, and my grandmother wanted her to be a concert pianist and play in Carnegie Hall. Of course. It didnt come to pass, but isnt it interesting that i played in Carnegie Hall . Yeah. So grandma got her wish. Yes, and she was there, may i add. She was . Yes. Oh, did she cry . I dont know, but i cry just thinking about it. I bet its like, thats my granddaughter. Exactly. King tumbling down gates tony kushner is one of americas most acclaimed writers, best known for his pulitzer prizewinning play angels in america, and his Academy Awardnominated script for Steven Spielbergs lincoln. Born Anthony Robert kushner on july 16, 1956, to William Kushner and sylvia deutscher, tony grew up far from the lights of broadway in lake charles, louisiana. Kushner the jews in lake charles were absolutely unapologetic about being jews. There was no attempt to hide, and we all went through our childhoods feeling proud that we were jews. Gates like most towns in the deep south, lake charles was overwhelmingly christian. Jewish people made up less than 1 of the citys population, and, despite an idyllic childhood, tony told me that his family was not immune from antisemitism. Kushner when my mother was dying in the hospital in lake charles, my mothers hair had started to fall out, and this woman she was in her 40s said, can i just ask you something . She said, where are the horns . And she literally thought not that we had devil horns, but the old myth that jews have these little bumps, and she thought that under the hair, there would be horns. No. Yeah. It was a very shocking thing. Gates when tony left home to attend college at columbia university, he found that his experience of growing up jewish in the deep south had prepared him for what lay ahead. Gates youve said that being jewish prepared you for being gay. Can you explain what you meant by that . When it came time to understand how to be gay in a homophobic world, i already knew the model to follow because i knew how to be jewish in an antisemitic world, but then, of course, when i was coming out to my parents, id beat them up with that mercilessly. I said, you taught me not to apologize for who i am and to be proud of who i am, and this is who i am. Im jewish, but im also gay, and im just doing what you taught me to do. [dershowitz singing in hebrew] im gonna keep my day job. Thats beautiful. Im gonna keep my day job. Im amazed. Gates while he certainly has the beautiful voice of a cantor, not even Alan Dershowitz would compare himself to carole king. Alan solos in the courtroom, where hes been described as one of the nations most distinguished defenders of individual rights. A legendary harvard law professor and criminal defense attorney, alan has published over 30 books and argued more than 100 cases for highprofile clients, ranging from o. J. Simpson to claus von bulow. Less known, however, is alans pro bono work on behalf of those who cant even afford an attorney, a reflection of the values he learned in his synagogue and at home as a child. Gates you said that your father told you, quote, its the jews job to defend the underdog. It was always just an automatic part of our growing up that it was the job of the jew to always be out there defending the underdog. We were the underdog. We were emerging now. Do you still feel like an underdog . No. I feel like i represent the underdog. I feel like i have to remember that it was only very recently that i was the underdog, and i may become the underdog again. Gates born on the first of september in 1938 to Orthodox Jewish parents Harry Dershowitz and claire ringel, alan credits his formative years growing up on the streets of brooklyn for his pugnacious courtroom style. I was a tough kid as a street kid. I used to get into fistfights. I wore a garrison belt that i sharpened. Whats a garrison belt, alan . Want to hear something really funny . I still have it. I want to see it. This is a belt that has a very heavy silver, in this case, and im ready. Im ready. So you mess with me, you get my garrison. Jesus, thats a serious belt, man. We all grew up knowing we might have to fight back. Dershowitz this is a yeshiva. I can read hebrew. Gates as a student, alans rebellious nature often put him at odds with his teachers at the local yeshiva. While willing to debate the rabbis about everything, including the existence of god, alan says the historic persecution of jews and the unspeakable atrocities of the holocaust galvanized his commitment to protect and defend the jewish people and their right to practice their faith, both at home and abroad. The holocaust is a huge shaping force in your life, yes. I would imagine. For me, never again is not a slogan. Its my lifes commitment. I grew up with survivors. I grew up with people with their numbers tattooed on their wrist. I grew up with stories, mostly untold. It really was a generational silence, but we knew. We knew. Gates tony, carole, and alan, like all Jewish Americans, have experienced prejudice and discrimination because of their faith and their culture. Tonight im going to share with them some surprisingly dramatic stories about their immigrant ancestors who struggled against intolerance and whose unshakable pursuit of religious and personal freedom laid the foundation for the lives my three guests enjoy today. Carole king grew up in a predominantly jewish neighborhood in brooklyn surrounded by a large extended family. We were close family, and my grandparents, we lived near them. So i saw them a lot when i was a child. Gates carole spent much of her childhood with her maternal grandmother Sarah Besmogin, whom carole said spoke very little about her experience as a young immigrant coming to america. Born to peasants in the russian city of orsha on april 15, 1890, Sarah Besmogin was driven by a desire to build a better life for her family. Her musical ambitions would be passed down to her granddaughter carole. King my grandmother, she was a child of a baker, and she would deliver the bread to the rich girls homes, and shed press her nose up against the window and see the rich girls playing piano, and she would never get to do that in her status as a jewish woman of her generation. Did grandma sarah ever have any stories from orsha from her childhood . Nope. She didnt speak she didnt want to speak russian. She didnt want to tell any stories, not to me. Gates we wanted to learn more about sarahs life before she emigrated and why she never spoke about her past. Caroles grandmother spent her childhood among the nearly 5 million russian jews confined to an area along the empires western border. Known as the pale of settlement, it was the Largest Jewish Community in the world at that time. Established in 1791 by the russian empress catherine the great, the settlements Economic Opportunities were severely restricted, leaving the jews living within the pale, like caroles grandmother sarah, to languish in poverty. So they were all concentrated in that part of this vast empire called russia. Unbelievable. No wonder she aspired to wealth and culture, all consistent. Gates caroles grandmother sarah was 15 years old when the russian czar nicholas ii, responding to social unrest among the peasants, issued the 1905 october manifesto, a proclamation that ostensibly would have put all jewish people on an equal footing with all other russians, but rather than emancipate russias jewish population, the manifesto set off a rash of reactionary pogroms. Outbreaks of antisemitic violence had spread through hundreds of towns in the pale, including the city of orsha, where caroles grandmother lived. In the archives of a russian newspaper, we discovered an account of the brutality that took place there. King the town is completely torn apart, terrorized for two days, destroyed houses, stores, and looted jewish property, masses of killed and wounded. The town was burning in several places. Wow. When its all over, 32 jews were dead, hundreds severely injured. No wonder she didnt talk. I mean, this is something. My grandmother would put a wall up. I dont even want to think about it. Precisely, and she was 15. 15. Like many of orshas jews, they probably locked themselves inside her home and prayed that these thugs were not gonna come and kill them. Yes. Would you please turn the page . A russian newspaper published those photos of some of the victims. What impact do you think the pogrom had on your grandmother . It closed a part of her off. Mmhmm. Mm. She was not a woman who was warm or affectionate. Well, now we can begin to understand why. Its a horrible, horrible thing. Gates these antisemitic attacks throughout russia prompted tens of thousands of jewish people to flee to the United States. In the early decades of the 20th century, waves of impoverished jewish immigrants, including caroles 21yearold grandmother sarah, made the grueling, weekslong, transatlantic journey crowded together in the fetid underbelly of steerage compartments in passenger ships. Searching records for any sign of caroles grandmother, we discovered a passenger list for a ship called the ss kursk. Docking at ellis island on december 14, 1911, the ships manifest contained an entry that we knew carole would want to see. Ah ha ha ha oh, i love this. Its the list of alien passengers, which means foreign, not space people. The highlighted name is scheine besmogin. Have you ever heard of scheine besmogin . No. I dont know who he or she is. Im guessing he. Is that my greatgrandfather . Scheine besmogin is your grandmother sarah. Scheine was her yiddish name before she americanized it to sarah. You got the jaw drop. No. I thought it was wow. Amazing. Nope, but its so great because its so consistent with the grandma that i know, you know . Its like, i get it even more. Theres a reason for this. Gates like most european immigrants who came to america at the dawn of the 20th century, jewish people clung to their community and traditions. Reconstructing as best they could their tightknit family bonds from the old world in neighborhoods teeming with new immigrants within major east coast cities. The kushners were no exception. When tony was two, his family moved from new york to lake charles, louisiana, to live among cousins and his grandparents, but what makes them unique is that they were part of a closeknit southern Jewish Community that, surprisingly, dates back to the early 19th century. We went there with him to visit his childhood synagogue temple sinai, where he reminisced with the rabbi and an old family friend. I had the hardest time not laughing in shul. We just found everything that happened here hysterically funny. There we all are. Woman so theres your mom, tony. Where is she . Look. Right here. Right. Gates many people are shocked to realize that there has been an Historic Jewish presence anywhere in the south. As far as i could tell, all the way back to the founding of temple sinai, there was an enormously powerful and proud affiliation with jewish history, jewish culture, and the jewish identity. And thats rabbi rosenblatt, and thats rabbi marx, who. Gates tony wanted to know more about his ancestors decision to live among a small jewish minority in the southern United States. To find out why, we traced tony back to the first kushner ancestor who came to america, and that was his greatgrandfather ezrael kushner. When he arrived here from kovno, russia in 1890, ezrael was 18 years old, the age of conscription, at a time when the Russian Military was a very dangerous place for jewish men to serve. Kusnher legend was that he had worked as a tailor for the russian navy and that he fled when he became afraid that he was gonna get enlisted in the draft, which, for jewish men frequently meant the end because they were killed by their own comrades as often as anything else, and the story i was told is that he took a spool of gold thread, stuck it in a jar of chicken fat, and somehow used the gold thread to pay for his passage and got out. Its very romantic. I dont know if any of this is true, but thats what i was told. Gates while we couldnt confirm tonys colorful ancestral tale, we did discover something fascinating about his greatgrandfathers choice to put down roots in the southern United States. Jewish immigrants made their way south in significant numbers following the civil war. The end of slavery created new Economic Opportunities supplying goods and services to recently freed slaves and their descendents, now suddenly thrust into the marketplace as consumers. We wondered if this informed tonys greatgrandfathers decision to settle with his family in lake charles, louisiana. A 1927 city directory gave us the answer. Wow. Well, thats cool. Kushner lumber building company, ezrael kushner president , sam kushner secretarytreasurer. By 1927, your grandfather and your greatgrandfather were running their own lumber company. What can you tell me about kushner lumber . Again, this is a story i was told, that my greatgrandfather started the kushner lumber company in the black neighborhood because there was no lumber business there and he saw a business opportunity. We just dissolved it. It went out of business in 2013. Wow. Gates in laying a foundation here in america, tonys greatgrandfather ezrael established a business that provided for generations of kushners to come, a model of the jewish immigrant experience, but as we researched ezraels story, we also found something surprising. Listed in the 1930 federal census was an ancestor of tonys who didnt make the journey south. Instead, she was living in brooklyn. Kushner Cecilia Kushner. Have you ever heard of Cecilia Kushner . No. Tony, thats your greatgreatgrandma. Wow. Thats astonishing. Who was she . Gates records show that tonys greatgreatgrandmother Cecilia Kushner was born in russia in 1838, making her 60 years old when she came to america eight years after her son ezrael arrived here. We dont know why cecilia chose to live in brooklyn when her son lived in louisiana. Perhaps she simply preferred new york with its thriving jewish immigrant community. Regardless, mother and son remained close, as evidenced by ezraels will. Filed in 1930, it reflects the high value the jewish culture places on commitment to family. Thats incredible. Where did you find it . Can you read the highlighted section, please . It is my desire that there be paid out of my estate to my mother mrs. Cecilia kushner the sum of 25 per month during her lifetime. Wow. Thats amazing. Thats really incredibly moving. I had no idea. Thats an incredibly powerful thing. Dershowitz this is where i played punchball on the streets. Of course, there were no cars in those days. This would be home plate. Ok. Youd have the ball, and if you could punch it you see one sewer down there . Right there. Two sewers, you were very good. Three sewers, major league. Yeah. Gates i was delighted to accompany Alan Dershowitz on a tour of the brooklyn neighborhood where he grew up. Gates did you know any nonjews in school . My first 12 years of school, i didnt know any nonjews. Gates alan was just trying to be an allamerican boy in an Orthodox Jewish community where strict religious observance and tradition still run deep and where the definition of family extends far beyond the house in which you are raised. I lived here. I lived in this house. This is Alan Dershowitz. And you probably lived on 51st street. No. My mother lived right here. My grandmother lived on 51st street, and she was a distant cousin to my greatgrandmother. Whos your greatgrandmother . Samble was the name. I know the sambles. Right. Alans grandmother blima ringel imposed a strict orthodoxy on alan from the time he was young boy, but her story exemplifies the oftendifficult process of assimilation for Eastern European jews coming to america struggling to balance their old world values with modern, 20th century american values. My grandmother dominated the family. Her word was law. Her favorite word was mtur nisht youre not allowed and if i would ever do anything, id get smacked on the fingers, and, mtur nisht. Youre not allowed to have a chocolate bar so soon after having a hamburger. Mtur nisht. Mtur nisht. I would get tired of somebody smacking my hands and not giving me my chocolate bar. Right, right. I had an ambivalent relationship with her. When i would come home from a brooklyn dodger game and say, grandma, the brooklyn dodgers won, she would say, yeah, but is a good or bad for the jews . Gates; but alans grandmother had good reason to cling to her cultural traditions and religious faith. Like carole king and Tony Kushners ancestors, blima and her husband naftali were forced to flee their homeland because they were jewish. Alans grandparents blima and naftali ringel were born in the 1800s in an area that was then called galicia. Now located in poland, galicia was an Agricultural Center for the austrohungarian empire, and while the region was poor, it contained thriving, tightly knit jewish communities. Dershowitz they were galitzianers, which is the lowest level of Eastern European jew. We were the peasants, the nonintellectuals. Gates alans grandparents were teenagers when, in 1898 after a decade of crop failures, galicia he was thrown into an economic crisis. Jewish merchants and bankers were used as scapegoats. Whipped into frenzy by antisemitic rhetoric, their christian neighbors looted and destroyed hundreds of jewish homes and businesses. The violence spread across the region, including the hometowns of alans grandparents naftali and blima. Galicias jews referred to these riots as the plunder. So how do you think this experience affected their jewish identity . Some people wouldve fled being jewish, too dangerous. For my grandparents, there was no option. They couldnt reject their jewishness. Their jewishness was who they were. They could reject their polishness, and they did. They left poland. Gates between 1900 and 1910, nearly 170,000 jews fled persecution throughout the austrohungarian empire, the vast majority coming from the galicia region. This is the passenger record from the ss america. The ss america arrived at ellis island august 17, 1907. Can you tell me who was on this ship, my friend . Naftali ringel. Isnt it amazing that he came on a ship called america . I know. Do you know, there used to be a law in judaism that you couldnt travel on a boat on the sabbath . Had that law not been changed, none of the jews of europe could have come to america because it took more than seven days and youd have to be on the boat over the sabbath, and thats what allowed religious jews to come to america. Good move, rabbis. Yeah, yeah. [ships horn blows] gates two years after alans grandfather naftali passed through ellis island, his wife blima also emigrated to america, but, according to family legend, the reunion didnt go so well. Dershowitz when my grandfather left poland, he had a long, long beard, and apparently, he cut off his beard, and when my grandmother saw him, she didnt recognize him, and she didnt believe that this was her husband and rejected him. Oh, really . Yeah. Gates not recognizing her cleanshaven husband was only the first sign to alans grandmother that her old world customs and expectations might be on a collision course with new world ways. Adapting to the fastpaced life in america came more naturally to her husband naftali, as this document, filed only seven years after he arrived, attests. Quite something. Gates its an actual certificate of your ancestors naturalization. Can you tell me to whom it was issued . To naftali ringel, my grandfather. And thats his actual signature. Yes, yes, and its a beautiful signature. Can you tell me what it says transcribed at the bottom . It was ordered by the court that he be admitted as a citizen of the United States of america. I can imagine how proud he mustve been. Its amazing. Gates with naftalis miniaturization, blima also won american citizenship, and in time, she would become comfortable wearing a prayer shawl and waving the stars stripes. Dershowitz my grandmother loved america. She would make my brother and me recite the pledge of allegiance, go to the statue of liberty. Her biggest holidays were july 4. America was everything that poland was not. America was everything that poland was not. Right. Yeah, yeah. Hmm. Gates Jewish Americans share much in common with other european immigrants who crossed the atlantic seeking a better life, but there is one crucial difference. The long history of their persecution and the many attempts systematically to annihilate them made the jewish quest for haven in the new world literally a matter of survival. And, as my guests were about to learn, there was no guarantee that jewish immigrants would be welcomed here with open arms. We revealed to carole king the harrowing journey of her maternal grandmother Sarah Besmogin, who found a safe haven in america. Now we wanted to share with her the improbable immigration story of her paternal grandparents david and mollie klein, who arrived here with the family name glajman. Their experience demonstrates just how fraught finding sanctuary in the United States often could be. Ha ha ha now, those are your grandparents. Yes. Do you know anything about their russian experience . David was a tailor. Mollies family had a little more money. They looked down on a tailor. So they fell in love, and, to my understanding, they ran away together. They really wanted to get to america, where there would not be those class differences, get out of their village, and they eloped. Gates we found the names of the young lovers on the passenger list for a ship called the ss julia arriving in ellis island on november 25, 1904, but then, we learned, they ran into trouble. Can you tell me how much money they had between them . In possession of 2. 00 between them. Two dollars. Two dollars, and unable to read. Both of them could not read. No. Do you know what happened, carole, to immigrants who were illiterate and had two dollars . No. Turn the page. This is a list of the immigrants arriving on the ss julia who were detained at ellis island. David the gleiman and wife. Immigration officials doubted that your grandparents could support themselves in the United States. So they didnt let them in the country. Unbelievable. Gates after crossing a continent and an ocean to be together, caroles ancestors, like other detainees, were separated by gender and then held in unbearably hot and crowded liceridden cells. Unable to see or speak to each other, they were herded together with those whose physical condition or economic circumstances might prevent them from entering. If they couldnt demonstrate that they had a means of support in the United States, caroles grandparents risked being sent back to russia. A closer look at the passenger records revealed a mystery person who would change the young couples fate. Now, it tells us that someone came to meet your grandparents. Yes. It says, cousin, mr. Sam kline kline. Have you ever heard of sam klein. Not that i know of. We searched everywhere, but we couldnt figure out how he was even related to your grandparents. Oh, my gosh. But he played a huge role in your familys history because, had he not shown up, youd have been singing how do you say natural woman in polish . Right. I feel the earth move in russian. Oh, my goodness. Well, that might be where they got the name. It could be. They probably adopted it. I thought an official had changed their name when they came in, but no. Thats common myth, but it almost never happened. Hmm, ok. But this guy played a huge role. Do i have to rewrite my book now . Could you please turn the page . Can you read what it says next to david and mollies names . Admitted and admitted. Admitted. Sam convinced he immigration officials to let your family into the United States. So they were in detention three days. Three days . Three days. That mustve been the longest three days in their lives. Yep. Wow. So they went to klein. You went from klein. Thats right. Yeah. Ha ha actually, i am still klein. Ive incorporated that my legal name now is carole king klein. Oh, great. I went through four marriages and changed my name every single time, and then i finally came back to, no. Im klein. So thats pretty cool. Kushner this is grandma and grandpa, and thats me. Yeah. I think we probably werent living in lake charles yet. Gates settling in the american south, tonys paternal greatgrandfather ezrael kushner managed to find community and thrive, building a Family Business that would sustain generations of kushners. But the story of tonys maternal ancestors was more complex, and their journey highlights both the triumphs and tragedies of the Jewish American experience. It begins with tonys grandfather, born in 1844 in a region of poland that was then part of the austrohungarian empire. His name was Benjamin Deutscher. Thats benny and sarah. Thats them. Ive never seen that picture before. He had a car, i know, because he took the family on outings in a car. Gates when Benjamin Deutscher left home in 1904, he was the first member of his family to migrate to america, leaving behind his siblings and his parents, tonys greatgrandparents, pinchas deutscher and channy somer. Tony was never certain of the fate of his ancestors who stayed behind in poland in 1939 during the time of the nazi occupation. We do know that tonys grandfather and eventually his three brothers all were able to leave poland. In fact, we found an article from a new york newspaper detailing the arrival of tonys greatuncle aaron jacob deutscher, known as jack, who got here just as things were about to turn disastrous for polish jews. Have you ever seen that article, that news clip before . No. I dont think so. His name is misspelled deutschler. Yeah. Could you read the headline . And brother benjamin. Dr. Aaron deutschler finds u. S. A happier place to live. This is an article about your greatuncle. Coming over. Yep. He fled poland and arrived in the United States on march 14, 1938. Would you mind reading the highlighted section of the article . His parents are still in their little home in nadworno, and last night, the brothers made a pact to bring them to this country as soon as possible. Wow. Do you know anything about their efforts to get the rest of your family over . I dont know exactly what the efforts were, but there was definitely not much money, and what ive always been told is that by the time they had enough to get the sisters passage on a boat, they couldnt contact them anymore. They couldnt make contact. [machine gun fire] gates by 1941, the nazis were rounding up jewish people all throughout poland. We found an eyewitness account of the horrifying events that took place in tonys ancestral home nadworno on october 6 of that year. Gates this is a statement made by one of the german soldiers who was there that day. Kushner three or four trucks brought the jews to a forest about 10 kilometers from nadworno. With one of the first trucks, i arrived at the shooting site. Executions were already in progress. [gunshot] many of the jews lie naked in the ditch and were already dead. [gunshot] the shooting continued as long as we saw that there were any living jews laying in the ditches. [gunshot] the only time we stopped was to wait for the next truck to arrive. I dont know what to say about it. Its unspeakable. Mm. The nazi officers who planned this massacre referred to it in their correspondence as a wedding. They said they were planning a wedding, and they talked about the victims as guests. Gates 2,000 polish jews were executed on that single day in the forest of nadworno, but without documented proof, tony couldnt know for sure if his ancestors were among the victims of that massacre. To uncover the answer for him more than 70 years later, we turn to oral histories from survivors and their descendents. Their testimony appears in what are known as yizkor books, yiddish for remember. There we found a reference to tonys family members. Pinchas deutscher and fanna deutscher, my sister malka kierner, ludwig kierner, kids marta and manek, my sister laika hecht, her brotherinlaw martis hecht, and kids lanek and manek, all killed by the german murderers. Yeah. There you go. Unbelievable. I think its important that people are careful about Different Levels of suffering and Different Levels of horror. Genocide is a specific thing. Slavery is a specific thing. Its a kind of soul murder that is unlike other forms of oppression. The holocaust is a nearsuccessful attempt to obliterate. In less than a decade. In less than a decade an entire civilization. This is beyond human comprehension, and you dont repress the fact that it happened, but you allow a ring of unknowing to surround it because you cant what was it like on the slave ship . What was it like in auschwitz . Our great good fortune, in a way, is to not actually know directly. Gates decades before the holocaust, Alan Dershowitzs ancestors naftali and blima ringel held onto their religious orthodoxy when they fled antisemitic violence in galicia. Alan took me back to the borough park synagogue, where his family once worshiped. Dershowitz this synagogue is about 100 years old. Borough park is one of the only neighborhoods that has always been jewish. That is, it was not a neighborhood until the jews moved in here around 1900, and this is one of the first synagogues built in the neighborhood, and its built in the tradition of the great polish synagogues with the high dome. Oh, my god, look at that. Yeah. Gates we found out that another synagogue in alans Family History would be much more than a house of worship. It involves the remarkable story of alans grandfather louis dershowitz, a man who was willing to go to extraordinary lengths to save his family from certain death in nazioccupied poland. Dershowitz my grandfather louie was a lovely man. He was an allamerican guy, wore a straw hat, liked the brooklyn dodgers, liked america and liked being an american. Gates Louie Dershowitz was nine years old when he arrived in this country in 1891 and settled with his family in the williamsburg section of brooklyn. The seeds of the bustling Orthodox Jewish community were being sewn there, and the dershowitz men would eventually establish the neighborhoods first shtiebel, a small Orthodox Community synagogue in the basement of their 10th street home. Dershowitz this was a synagogue without a rabbi. This was a family synagogue, and the cantor was my grandfather. The lay leader was my greatgrandfather. Gates decades later, this synagogue would play a surprising role in alans Family History. Adolf Hitler Sieg Heil gates the nazi menace was growing throughout europe. [whistle blows] jews, desperate to escape, were fleeing in great numbers. In response, the United States resorted to immigration quotas and other onerous visa restrictions to control the flow of jewish refugees. In 1939, the Roosevelt Administration turned away the st. Louis, a ship carrying 907 passengers, most of them German Jewish refugees, forcing its return to europe, where hundreds of them would ultimately die in concentration camps. Given this climate, we wondered about the fate of alans ancestors who remained behind in europe. Scouring documents from the time, we were surprised by what we found. Alan, this is a set of passenger records from 1939. Amazing. Ive never seen these before. Can you read the transcribed names . Yeah. Haskell dershowitz, aron dersiewicz, hirsch dersiewicz, wolf dersiewicz. I knew all these people. This is absolutely remarkable. Gates how could so many of alans family members have gained entry to the United States when so many others were being denied . What we learned astonished us. Alans grandfather louie hatched an ingenious plan. He used his tiny basement synagogue to rescue his family. By issuing affidavits guaranteeing that they had employment, louie proved that his relatives had a purpose for coming to america. Dershowitz my grandfather would have affidavits saying, our synagogue needs a rabbi. It needs a chazzan. It needs a circumciser. It needs a shochet. It needs a shammas, so they would have an opportunity to say, we have a job, and they would come over. They werent real rabbis. They were a people from all aspects of life, and these are the relatives that my grandfather saved. Gates 28 dershowitz cousins were saved by this brilliantly artful deception. Ironically, the ancestor of one of the countrys leading criminal Defense Attorneys committed clever, but nevertheless unlawful, acts that could have cost him his own hardearned freedom in the new world. Dershowitz so you might ask me why im so sympathetic to Illegal Immigrants in the United States. Because my family were Illegal Immigrants. Some of the most successful members of my family were brought over on fake affidavits. Your grandfather is a hero, man. He was, and he was so proud of what he had done. Gates sadly, not all of alans relatives could be rescued. They met with the tragic fate of so many jews sent to the concentration camps at places like auschwitz and treblinka. By the time of nazi germanys Unconditional Surrender in 1945, over 6 million jews had perished. Well over half of them came from poland. Dershowitz the most important decision in my life was not made by me. It was made by my grandparents, to leave poland and to come to america. If they had remained in poland, i would have been four years old at the time of the final solution, and i would have been part of that solution. Gates the holocaust and the vicious pogroms of the past aimed to eliminate the jewish people completely. Today we all must continue to recite the chapters of this painful past, lest the sacrifices of so many be forgotten. Yet reconstructing the details of these horrific stories can be exceptionally difficult. While the jewish people survived, most of the records documenting their ancestors lives before the holocaust were perniciously destroyed. Thats why we were pleasantly surprised when we found the russian archive that held a wealth of information about carole kings ancestors stretching back further than we ever believed possible. All right. This is extraordinary. Wow. This is a russian marriage record from the year 1881. Oh, my gosh. Well, fasten your seat belt because once we had this marriage record, we were able to go back even further. Are you kidding me . Please turn the page. Guess hes not kidding, is he . This is another marriage record, and its from 1851. Another jaw drop. You got two. Gates incredibly, this document gave us the names of caroles third greatgrandparents, taking her family line all of the way back to the late 18th century. I am blown away. Ha ha ha my people dont the records are gone. George washington was president of the United States when your third greatgrandfather was born. Thats ridiculous. Thats not possible. Carole, you have a rich family tree. I do. Thank you. And deep roots, my god. Yeah, deep, deep roots, deep, findable roots. Gates we can see from the ancestors of tonights guests that for jewish people, the United States of america was more than a mere symbol of freedom and opportunity. It was a haven where jews could hold on to their culture, practice their religion, and commemorate their traditions while also becoming americans. [woman singing in hebrew] gates do you know what america meant to your grandparents . Oh, america was everything. America was the promised land. America was the place that the streets were paved with milk and honey and gold. America was, for them, the salvation. Theres no place in World History where, i think, jews have lived more securely and more meaningfully, in a certain sense, than in this country. U. S. Constitution made it possible for us to stay jews and become free of the curse of antisemitism, and i dont think its pie in the sky to say it. I think its a very powerful and a meaningful thing, and its thrilling. Gates for carole, tony, and alan, establishing connections with longlost ancestors strengthen their bonds with their rich jewish heritage. Join me next time when we unlock the secrets of the past for three new guests on another episode of finding your roots. Male announcer next time on finding your roots, deepak chopra, sally field, and sting reflect on their genealogy. They all had lives. They lived. They loved. If i could just see a picture of them in my mind, of what they came from, that it would somehow give me what im looking for. Gates have you ever heard about ancestors going to australia . No. Any idea why they might have gone . No, but im fearing the worst. Ha ha ha male announcer finding your roots. Was provided by. Our little leaf that can help guide you through the past. With just a name, your journey begins. A journey that can cross generations and continents, all to reveal the untold story of how you became you. Love holds us in the beginning, comforts us as we grow old. Love is the reason you care for all the things in your life that make life worth living. Sweet love am i on that grind, huh . Have a good night. Hey, you forgot something. Thats you. Big mac, extra sauce, right . Right. Being deeply rooted means being simply connected. And by the ford foundation, just films. The corporation for public broadcasting. And by viewers like you. This season of finding your roots is available on a threedvd disc set for 39. 99. The season one companion book is also available for 30. To order, call 18003361917. To share your family stories, watch full episodes, and find out more, visit pbs. Org. Man native people came to cities looking for certain things that they needed, not to become like everybody else. Woman the relocation program, which sounded like, you know, a really great thing. They were going to give you money to travel, give you money to get there. Once you get there, they were going to find you a home, theyd pay for your home, theyd give you money for food, you could find a job or do this job training, like schooling. Sounds really great, especially if you didnt have any money on the reservation. What a bummer it turned out to be though. But they didnt make it sound like they were going to get us off the reservation so we wonbe indian anymore,